In The News

The Enduring Mysteries of the Outer Solar System

This is the title of a recent article by Charles Quoi on Space.com. The article begins with the old idea that the Kuiper belt is the origin of comets, but then poses the question as to why a great number of the Kuiper belt objects and their "immediate progeny", the centaurs "show a wide range of colors - neutral or even slightly blue all the way to very red" according to Hawaii astrophysicist David Jewitt. He goes on to express his puzzlement that this ultra-red matter does not exist in the inner solar system, "not even in the comets which come from the Kuiper belt."

My scenario of recent solar system 'catastrophism,' which has been around for about a decade, provides the answer to the conundrum. After the impact on Jupiter, out of which proto-Venus rebounded, a massive jet of flaming gases from the sustained nuclear conflagration in the impact crater continued to shoot out of Jupiter for thousands of years. Initially it extended beyond the Galilean moons, indeed it provided the material which comprises their outer layers, the proto-moons having been created at the same time as proto-Venus. But much of the jet material failed to become incorporated in the moons and as it cooled in the weightlessness of space, coalesced into low density, cinder-like bodies comprising primarily water ice - because Jupiter itself comprises primarily water ice in the form of solid gas hydrates. Currently (still?) unknown to astrophysicists, this was the origin of the main belt asteroids, as a result of which are less than 6000 years old. But because the great jet shot in all directions as Jupiter rapidly rotated, many bodies were launched into different orbits, for example, the ones that went into exccentric orbits close to the Sun are the source of sunspots, and as a result are influencing the climate of the Earth to this day. Others, given higher velocities due to their being launched in the direction of Jupiters orbital motion, went farther out into the solar system to become the mysterious Kuiper belt objects and centaurs. The "wide range of colors" of these objects corresponds to the range of colors that are obvious on Jupiter, because that is where they originated. Of course, the astrophysicists also do not understand the colors on Jupiter either.

To understand these colors requires an understanding of the origin of the solar system. The giant planets formed when all the material in the inner solar nebula (gas and dust) was pushed out to the orbit of Jupiter and beyond. The dust particles catalyzed the formation of H2 and subsequently ice formed on their surfaces. The ice formed snowflakes and initiated the process of accretion - this was the only accretion in the solar system. The hydrogen which was not captured in this way was lost from the system. Thus all the heavy elements in the dust became incorporated in the giant planets which formed cold, as solid gas hydrates, and remain frozen to this day. Early mankind was fortunate to witness the creation of the terrestrial planet proto-Venus only 6000 years ago and as a result passed down to us an amazingly complete record of the attendant events. This example shows how each terrestrial planet was formed, although the other two are extremely ancient (4.7 and 3.9 billion years old). As stated above, the impact out of which proto-Venus was born, triggered a nuclear conflagration in the crater, which is still being fed by the hydrogen continually being released from the surrounding gas hydrates to this day. This conflagration has declined in intensity in the last 6000 years to the point that the gases no longer escape the planet, but still heat and color the atmosphere to the degree that the heat source remains disguised. I say 'desigused' because it is certianly obvious, in the form of the Great Red Spot The heavy elements released from the interior by the conflagration, form the compounds that color the atmosphere as they rise and cool and their presence in the atmosphere constitutes a thermal blanket which disguise the localized heat source.

It should be obvious from the above that comets do not come from the Kuiper belt or the centaurs, since both are less than 6000 years old. Those daring astrophysicists who are not afraid of losing their jobs can find my paper on the Cosmogony of the Solar System presented in Montreal about three years ago as well as those on Jupiter, Venus and Sunspots on this site under Recent
Papers .